NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LONG ISLAND CITY

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LONG ISLAND CITY; A Yeasty Smell Blows Out to Sea As an Era Ends at Fink Bakery

By JIM O'GRADY

Published: September 22, 2002

For the last half of the 20th century, Queens was a place of mass ferment. Not social or political ferment but the yeast-driven ferment of blocklong bakeries working around the clock to turn out dinner rolls, whole wheat loaves, rye bread and hot dog buns, all borne by boxy trucks to every corner of the city. The smell of their breads hovered over entire neighborhoods.

The era faded further into the past on Sept. 5 with the court-ordered auction of the assets of the New York Baking Company. That company had been operating only since December 2000, but its owner, Salvatore Liga, had bought the business from the Fink Bakery, a city fixture since 1888.

The Fink family still owns the current site of the bakery, with 150,000 square feet at 54th Avenue and Fifth Street in Long Island City. But Jimmy Fink, who oversees the remains of the business, said he had no plans to revive the bakery and did not think another baking company would buy it. Fink is Long Island City's last large bakery.

The family business began when Alois Fink opened a corner bakery on the Upper East Side. By the 1950's, Fink Bakery was a wholesale operation that had outgrown its East 76th Street site, so Richard Fink, Alois's grandson, followed the lead of other large city bakers and built a factory in Long Island City. For decades, white Fink delivery trucks plied their routes with the motto, ''Fink means good bread,'' emblazoned in red letters on their sides. The company's first slogan, which graced their horse-drawn wagons until the 1920's, was, ''If you're well-bred, eat Fink bread.''

The one-story tan brick building on 54th Avenue looked forlorn last week, its loading bays idle. But from 1960 until early last month, when New York Baking produced its last roll, it was a dynamo.

Seven days a week, three huge tunnel ovens produced up to 15,000 loaves of white bread, 8,000 loaves of whole wheat, 5,000 loaves of rye, 30 kinds of hamburger rolls and hundreds of loaves of pumpernickel and cinnamon raisin. Its customers included delis, diners, Yankee Stadium and New York's more than 900 public schools.

''It was the largest manufacturer of bread in the city of New York for the last 10 years,'' Mr. Fink said. It had 300 workers in an area where the average business has 50.

Today, the big bakeries have all been bought or moved to places with lower costs. ''It's cheaper to bake bread with nonunion labor in Montreal and truck it eight hours to New York than to do business in the city,'' Mr. Fink said.

A result, for Long Island City, is the loss of the pungent smell of warming yeast. ''The smell would be wonderful in the morning,'' said John Rikkers, a television producer who lives nearby on 48th Avenue, ''like waking up in the home of someone baking bread.'' JIM O'GRADY

Photos: Fink Bakery's huge ovens fed delis, Yankee Stadium and 900 public schools. Chart: ''AROMAS -- Cold Ovens'' Although some brand names may survive, many of the city's big bakeries are now closed. Silvercup -- Long Island City, Queens. Opened in 1929, closed in 1975. Today it is a TV studio. Its slogan was ''The Worlds Finest Bread.'' Taystee Bread -- Flushing, Queens. Opened in 1966, closed in 1992. Once the country's largest bakery, it is now the site of a Home Depot. Sunshine Biscuits -- Long Island City. Opened in 1912, closed in 1965. Known for Krispy Saltines and Hydrox cookies. Sunshine literally entered through its 1,000 windows. Bond Bread -- Flatbush, Brooklyn. Among other products, the company sold rye bread under the Grossinger's name, which it leased from that Catskills resort. Krug Bakery Jamaica, Queens. One of the few large bakeries to offer home delivery. Its trucks had lamps and horns that tooted out melodies. Levys East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Opened in 1888, closed in 1979. Specialized in rye and pumpernickel. One slogan: ''You dont have to be Jewish to love Levy's.''